Radical preacher Anjem Choudary sentenced to life in UK
A judge in the United Kingdom has sentenced radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of directing and encouraging support for the banned terrorist organization Al-Muhajiroun (ALM).
ALM’s goals and ban
Al-Muhajiroun, established to create an Islamic caliphate in Britain, was banned in 2010. The 57-year-old Choudary, who became the defining face of Islamist radicalism in the post-Brexit UK, was convicted last week on terrorism charges.
“Organizations such as yours normalize violence in support of an ideological cause,” Judge Mark Wall stated at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, addressing Choudary. “Their existence gives individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts which otherwise they might not do. They drive wedges between people who otherwise could and would live together in peaceful coexistence.”
Choudary has been sentenced to a minimum term of 28 years. Having already spent nearly a year in prison, he will not be eligible for parole until 2047.
Anjem Choudary’s background
Anjem Choudary was Britain’s most high-profile Islamist preacher, first gaining notoriety for praising the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States. He even declared his intention to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
Choudary was previously imprisoned in Britain in 2016 for building support for Islamic State and was released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Prosecutor’s case and defense arguments
Prosecutor Tom Little stated on Tuesday, July 30, that Choudary became “the caretaker emir” of al-Muhajiroun after fellow Islamist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed was jailed in Lebanon in 2014.
Choudary’s lawyer argued that al-Muhajiroun was “little more than a husk of an organization” and that almost all terrorist acts linked to the group had already taken place. However, Judge Wall countered that al-Muhajiroun was “a radical organization intent on spreading sharia law to as much of the world as possible, using violent means where necessary.”
Choudary stood trial alongside Canadian citizen Khaled Hussein, 29, who was arrested on the same day as Choudary in 2023 upon his arrival at Heathrow Airport. Hussein was also found guilty of holding membership in a banned organization and was sentenced to five years in prison.